Marketing of Library Products and Services to Medical Professionals in Jos University Teaching Hospital

CHAPTER ONE

Research objectives

The focus is on marketing to achieve use of resources and quality of service in medical libraries of Jos university teaching hospital Nigeria and come up with recommendations for an effective marketing strategy for such libraries. Therefore, the research is geared toward meeting the following objectives in Jos university teaching hospital:

1. To identify the resources and facilities available for facilitating the Marketing of library products and services to medical professionals in medical libraries;
2. To examine the marketing strategies and techniques currently employed in meeting users’ needs in medical libraries;
3. To identify the factors that adversely affect the effective marketing of information resources and services to medical professionals in medical libraries
4. To determine the measures that can be employed to facilitate the effective marketing of information resources and services to medical professionals in medical libraries

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Concepts, purpose and application of marketing in libraries

Marketing is an approach to sharing knowledge: it synthesizes information into a gift that your users can open and use immediately (Kennedy and LaGuardia 2017). This indicates that marketing simply means identifying and providing the information needed of a user. According to Olorunfemi and Ipadeola (2018) marketing is all about keeping in contact with users and keeping them aware of resources and services relevant to their needs. The effectiveness of marketing in university library depends mostly on persuading users that the databases are desirable; they should alert the users to become aware of the services and be excited about the benefit they provide. This in essence would attract users to come and make use of the library resources and services. Aderibigbe (2015) stated that marketing entails understanding the library’s aims and investigating the market needs and the library ability to provide those needs. It also involves promoting the library and its services and attracting users.

It entails the process of identifying user’s information needs. The process of knowing the users’ needs involves proper market survey and must be guided by the marketing objectives/goals of the library. The marketing goals of libraries, as identified by Bello (2015) may include attracting patrons or users by promising superior benefits and growing an already established patron’s base or users by delivering satisfaction. In the present study, therefore, marketing involves the process of identifying users and their information needs, with a view to meeting those needs. Olorunfemi and Ipadeola (2018) opined that marketing is all about figuring out what users want and creating strategies and services to meet those demands. As such, with the strategies in place users would be enlightened to know more about their information resource and service needs to support research, teaching, and learning. Mohapatra (2017) opined that the marketing of information resources and services consists of the following;

1. Knowing the aim/ reason for the library;
2. Identifying the central occupation of the library;
3. Understanding the dynamics connecting the library and its close and general surroundings;
4. Knowing more about library clients to build a profound and symbiotic relationship together with;
5. Assessing and observing the client’s information needs intermittently;
6. Determining the information resources and services that should be adequately presented for the client’s information resources needs;
7. Planning and designing recognizing resources also, services within the confinements of the existing resources;
8. Creating consciousness between the clients on the presence and accessibility of resources and services;
9. Monitoring the utilization of resources and services then; and
10. Evaluating resources and services

The preceding argument by Mohapatra (2017) are deliberate efforts to ensure that the proper channel has been followed by the libraries so as to provide the appropriate information, using the right format, to be accessed by the right user and at the right time efficiently.

On the other hand, Kennedy and LaGuardia (2017) highlighted the benefit of marketing, which includes allowing libraries to demonstrate their value and communicate that they appreciate the value of the resources they have and disseminate that value to users. Ramadevi (2018) maintained that libraries can use marketing to increase user satisfaction, promote their image and compete for users, resources and services. Moreover, Abbas, Khalid and Hashmi (2016) added that marketing is essential in providing any service, since it creates a demand for the user to patronize the products. It increases the user rate and provides them with appropriate facilities, which are critical to the organization’s success.

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CHAPTER THREE

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

Research designs fall within qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches that provide defined rules for procedures in a research study (Creswell 2018). Davis (2014b) noted that a research design is a full plan of the entire study project. As a blueprint of a research inquiry, it is concerned with the whole research agenda (Ngulube and Ukwoma 2019). In other words, it is an outline of what you are going to do, from formulating the questions to collecting data and finalizing the final analysis. It was also mentioned by Kumar (2011) that a research design is a technical arrangement that is accepted by the investigator to address questions genuinely, equitably, precisely and efficiently. Through a research design, a researcher chooses and converses with others the choices regarding what the study design is proposed to be utilized, how respondents will be selected, in what way the data will be collected and analysed and how to convey the findings. Pandey and Mishra (2015) stated that a research design is a system of investigation that utilized a guide in gathering and dissecting data. A research design provides a solid foundation for the entire research.

Qualitative research method

Qualitative research is inductive, indicating that the researcher looks for meanings and insights in a situation (Levitt, Motulsky, Wertz, Morrow and Ponterotto 2017). Creswell (2018)

described it as an efficient model in a natural context that enable the researcher to generate a higher level of information from actual experiences. In other words, qualitative research is an ongoing process in which the scientific community better understands the phenomenon studied by making new meaningful distinctions due to getting close to the phenomenon (Aspers and Corte 2019). This shows that a researcher can understand the problem under investigation better with a qualitative approach. According to Creswell (2018) qualitative research is indeed defined as an effective model in a natural context that allows the researcher to develop a level of detail from a high level of involvement in actual experiences. Similarly, Hammarberg, Kirkman and De Lacey (2016) stated that qualitative methods are utilized to answer the question concerning experience, meaning and viewpoint, most often from the participant. Bezuidenhout and Cronje (2014) highlighted some of the uniqueness of qualitative research concepts to include:

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

 Library use 

This section seeks to determine the frequency of the use of the library by the respondents. The researcher wanted to know how frequently the medical professionals used the library because frequent usage is an indication that the library consistently meets the information needs of students and draws more students to the library more regularly. Moreover, it also shows that there is some level of marketing of information resources and services to the library users by the libraries, which also accounts for the students’ level of patronage.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The resources and facilities available to facilitate marketing of information resources and services in the medical libraries

The first Research Question sought to investigate the resources and facilities available for marketing information resources and services in the medical libraries. This question was addressed through both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings of the study showed that books were by far the most available information resources, as indicated by most (252 or 91%). This is consistent with the view of all the heads of the medical libraries. The findings also revealed that books, journals, newspapers and magazines along with reference resources (for example, encyclopaedias and dictionaries) were the most accessible and utilized resources by the students in the libraries. This was indicated by 260 or 94%, 231 or 83%, 221 or 80% and 208 or 75% respectively for books, journals, newspapers and magazines and reference works.

The study findings pointed out that the majority of the respondents (53%) agreed that the information resources provided by the medical libraries were current. The study also found that current information is by far the most available information service in the medical libraries, as acknowledged by 199 or 72% of the total respondents. The findings revealed that current information services along with reference and information services/helpdesk, library orientation and exhibitions and displays of new resources (books, journals, and reference sources) are the services that most students appear to be aware of and use in the medical libraries. This was indicated by 60%, 37%, 36% and 36% respectively for these services.

Conclusions

The conclusions are according to the findings of every research question of the study. These are: the resources and facilities available to facilitate marketing of information resources and services in the medical libraries; the strategies/techniques employed in marketing in the library; the challenges for the effective marketing information resources and services to medical professionals in medical libraries and the measures employed to facilitate effective marketing of information resources and services to medical professionals in medical libraries.

Resources and facilities available to facilitate marketing information resources and services in the medical libraries

The first Research Question sought to investigate the resources and facilities available for marketing information resources and services in the medical libraries. The findings of the study showed that books were by far the most available information resources and also books, journals, newspapers and magazines along with reference resources (for example, encyclopaedias and dictionaries) were the most accessible and utilized resources by the students in the libraries.

The study findings revealed that the information resources provided by the medical libraries were current and that current information was by far the most available service in the medical libraries. The findings revealed that current information services along with reference and information services/helpdesk, library orientation and exhibitions and displays of new resources (books, journals and reference sources) were the services that most students appeared to be aware of and use in the medical libraries.

The findings also showed that current information and exhibitions and displays of information resources (books, journal and reference resources) are the most accessible information services in the medical libraries. The findings revealed that a significant number of students was more satisfied with current information services than with any other services available in the libraries. The results showed that the majority believed that the services provided by the library met their information needs. The findings also showed that the library services made an impact on the users because they were satisfied and familiar with the library system and able to handle most of the problems associated with their information searches.

With regards to the facilities used for marketing information resources and services, the findings indicated that the only facilities considered most effective were notice boards. On the usefulness of the facilities for marketing, the findings indicated that notice boards, library websites, newspapers and social media were the only facilities that were considered useful. The study found that most of the respondents were unaware of any marketing activity in the library.

The strategies/techniques employed in marketing in the library

The second Research Question investigated the strategies/ techniques used by medical libraries for marketing information resources and services. This question was addressed through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings showed that the strategy most commonly used was advertisements. This was followed by public lectures, use of social media platforms, notice boards posters and pamphlets, user orientation programmes, exhibitions and displays user education programmes. Also there was a series of seminars and workshops as marketing strategies. Other strategies used were handbooks, CAS and SDI.

Recommendations:

Based on the findings of the study, the researcher made the following recommendations:

The resources and facilities available to facilitate marketing information resources and services in the medical libraries

For effective marketing in an organization, the 4Ps, 7Ps 4Cs and SERVQUAL has emphasized that there should be quality product/ reliability, place, physical evidence and convenience. These represent relevant and effective information resources and services in the libraries. However, the findings of this study show that only books are the dominant information resources available in the libraries. The results indicate that notice boards, library websites, newspapers and social media are useful facilities for marketing. However, some of the resources services and facilities were not known by the users such as audio-visual databases. This adversely affects marketing information resources and services in the medical libraries understudy.

Recommendation 1: Therefore, it is recommended that resources, services, and facilities such as databases, an audio-visual resource, posters, reservation services, interlibrary loan, photocopying and printing services should be adequately provided in the libraries. This will undoubtedly facilitate the marketing of the resources on the part of the libraries and at the same time facilitate effective utilization of the resources on the part of the library users.

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